


Time 100

by iwasfollowingyou, Lily_Padd_23



Category: The West Wing
Genre: As it should be, Established Relationship, I really have no idea how to tag this, M/M, No Dialogue, Post-Canon, but i think it's nice, it's not really a fic fic, not sure what you'd call it, really just josh and sam gushing about each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-24 23:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20367157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasfollowingyou/pseuds/iwasfollowingyou, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Padd_23/pseuds/Lily_Padd_23
Summary: Josh and Sam each make it ontoTimemagazine's list of the 100 most influential people and get to write each other's bios.





	Time 100

**_Time_ magazine’s 100 Most Influential People 2009**

**Josh Lyman**

_by Sam Seaborn_

Everyone in Washington has a story for the first time they met Josh Lyman. While the retellings of these memories are often laced with profanities, they are never without a kind of profound respect that borders on something like awe. 

I’d tell you mine, but you’ve heard it before, even if you’ve never heard me tell it. It contains all the same elements of meeting Josh Lyman that every one of these stories do. Overworked guy hunched over a messy pile of papers. A fast-paced conversation that moves so quickly you feel like you’ve stepped into a tennis match. Being told your idea is never going to get off the ground in about fifteen different ways. Leaving with a bruised ego and a detailed list of the steps you can take to make your plan work. Feeling like you’ve just lost a boxing match. Wanting to do it again and again. 

There’s a reason they called him Bartlet’s bulldog. There’s a reason the names he has as Chief of Staff contain words I can’t repeat here. However, Josh relishes those names like they’re part of his title. He didn’t come to Washington to be liked. Josh Lyman came to Washington to get things done. And he is one of the most accomplished people I know. Diligently working his way up from Congressional staffer to Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman has chipped away at problems that seemed inscrutable to anyone else, but that focus and determination is what makes him the greatest political mind of our generation. Nobody overcomes a challenge with more fervor than he. Few people I know have been faced with a larger dose of personal and professional hardships. Indeed, the obstacles that Josh has conquered would have caused many others to crumble. 

For Josh, politics has never been about Josh, which is what keeps him afloat. It’s about bettering the lives of those in this country, in this world, whose circumstances haven’t allowed them to keep standing up when they are toppled over. While he’s often been written off as having an inflated ego, I’d task anyone in this town to find a single time he hasn’t been putting himself between fire and the policy or person he’s committed to pushing through. Since the 1980s, behind every great man, there’s been Josh Lyman, rolling up his sleeves, ready to make history without a care in the world as to who remembers his name. Most who have found themselves on the opposite side of Josh Lyman also find themselves on the wrong side of history. Josh may not care that his name go down in the history books, and yet it will. Because there isn’t a milestone piece of legislation of the past twenty years that doesn’t have his fingerprints on it. 

It has been an honor to work alongside him, if for no other reason than to learn through osmosis how to pick your battles, how to put your money where your mouth is, and how to not let perception prevent you from doing the right thing, all of which are ways in which I’m still striving to improve. His forthrightness, sedulousness, his ability to separate the signal from the noise, his integrity are all rare and remarkable attributes that make a moment in his presence refreshing, invigorating, and damned inspirational. He never forgets the real people on the other end of every fight, which is why he holds himself to such high standards and why he never surrenders in trying to exceed them. 

But the thing that made me fall in love with him was the fact that someone with that much awareness that every move he makes will impact the archives of this nation’s history could do it all while making me laugh. It has become such a cliché to say that one fell in love with their best friend that even calling it a cliché is trite, but falling in love with my best friend has given me the privilege of a peek into that devilishly brilliant, calculating, ingenious, glorious mind and an opportunity to bask in the glow of his passionate, paradoxical, resilient heart. And anyone who knows him knows that, despite the decades of credentials and accomplishments behind him, he is just getting started. 

_Congressman Sam Seaborn currently serves the 47th district of California. Before being elected to Congress, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Matthew Santos and as Deputy Communications Director to President Jed Bartlet._

* * *

**_Time_ magazine’s 100 Most Influential People 2015**

**Sam Seaborn**

_by Josh Seaborn-Lyman_

I started writing this bio about a dozen times already, struggling to figure out what to do with it. There are so many directions I could have taken it. How was I supposed to choose? I started to make a list of possibilities: if I did narrow it down to just one specific thing, I could write about Sam’s extraordinary brain. Or his writing. Or his career, both in and out of the public sphere. I could write about his rise from a congressional staffer to a senior advisor to the president and, eventually, to President of the United States. I could write about his personality, the way he lights up every room that he enters and how he always leaves people smiling. I could write about the way he loves: fiercely, indisputably, entirely. I could write about it all, and this piece would end up being the length of a book, rather than the page or so I’ve been limited to. So, as I was listing out the possible angles I could go with this, I realized that it is impossible to describe Sam Seaborn with any limitations. Instead of trying to explain how incredible he is, I decided it may be easier to just explain how I see him and hope that everyone gets the picture.

Sam Seaborn is a genius. He is the most brilliant writer I have ever met — even now, he still writes more of his own speeches than any elected official I’ve ever known. The way his brain works has mystified me for nearly four decades. He remembers things that no one in their right mind would bother remembering, but somehow, he always finds a use for it (don’t you dare challenge him in trivia — you’ll lose every time). He is analytical and logical, but where others would fall into pessimism, he remains an unshaken idealist. It’s not simply that he always believes that the best thing is going to happen, but that he works harder than anyone else to ensure the ideal outcome. He’s the kind of person who will agree to run a congressional campaign in a district that has been red for longer than any of us can remember, just because he believes in the people behind it. It was his idealism that carried me through three presidential campaigns and far too many years in Washington.

The compassion and care that Sam brings to his role as President of the United States is the exact same compassion and care that he brings to every other aspect of his life. Politicians, as crafty as they are, are terrible actors. You can give someone a million lines to read off of a teleprompter, but you can’t teach them humanity. Sam's speeches don't appeal to their listeners because they are rehearsed and focus-group tested. Sam's speeches motivate his audiences through his genuine connection to those listening and a heartfelt understanding of the power of words. He’s nearly a better speaker than he is a writer, and he is a damn good writer. He is endlessly patient but unwilling to let anyone take advantage of him. There is something about him, something so fundamental that it _is_ him, that resonated with millions of people across the country and cemented this stretch of “good luck” for Democrats as not just a blip, but a movement — an era that began with President Jed Bartlet and will hopefully continue long after Sam and I finally leave the White House for good. (Well, at least Sam will leave. They’ll have to drag me out kicking and screaming).

Beyond everything else he is — a lawyer, a writer, a congressman, a president — Sam Seaborn is the love of my life. Every single day, I am blown away by how lucky I am to love someone like Sam and be loved by him in return. Being loved by Sam Seaborn is not a gift that I take for granted. Sam throws himself into love the same way he throws himself into work. He gives his entire self without a second thought. I am mesmerized by his mind, by his passion, by his idealism, by the way he carries himself and the way he makes everyone who shakes his hand feel like the most important person in the room for a moment.

When Sam first stepped out of his role as senior staff to attempt another run for Congress, I found myself feeling jealous, not of his sudden surge to fame (because I could see that coming from a mile away), but of the fact that I now had to share him with millions of other people. But this is what Sam Seaborn was made to do. I could have told you from the day I met him that he was going to be president one day. He was built for this. He’s done incredible things as a speechwriter, as an advisor, as a congressman, and already as a president. He will continue to do incredible things until the day he dies. And while he’s doing those incredible things, I’m more than happy to share him, with the knowledge that everyone who hears him speak is going to love him as much as I do.

_Josh Seaborn-Lyman is the current (and first ever) First Gentleman of the United States. Before assuming this role, he was Chief of Staff for President Matthew Santos and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Jed Bartlet._

**Author's Note:**

> so, this is a bit different than what i normally write, but i was struck with inspiration and thought why the hell not? and because i am josh and she is sam, i recruited ann to write sam's half of it. leave comments and kudos if you liked it -- a (iwasfollowingyou)


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